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It is us who will continue making films long after the corporate dollars have stopped flowing, for we and our dedicated cast and crew, love making films, and HAVE no choice but to get our messages out. Money be damned!

Now, don’t get me wrong – we all dream of financial stability and would like nothing better than to reward those who’ve helped us with a means of making a living. But, for us, it’s not about making money… it’s about telling a story that we’re passionate about. A tale that is on our nightstands while we sleep, and gently wake us from sleep in place of an alarm clock, with ideas it brewed during the night.

It is that master we serve! It is to story that we are slaves. And that will never stop, until someone sits on us and stops us from breathing.

Our future, will depend upon those who view and value our work. A large majority of which are used to getting it for free on the television, or on the Internet (long live Hulu and youtube).

No one really knows where things will go. So long as government doesn’t interfere it will flow naturally, and some pioneer will have a great idea, and will revolutionize the field, and then the rest will follow.

Without an audience, we are nothing. It is for our audience that we toil, that we make our art.

But the failing economy has served us indies as well. Technology companies have had to forego some of their huge corporate profits, and cater to us. After all, there are an increasing number of us. And so the equipment we need to make films is increasingly available and accessible. More of us come forth every day with new ideas and ways of telling stories.

And some of us are, via contests or grants, are able to pay their people. And some of us are getting network attention (e.g. Sanctuary).

I say our future is as bright as we decide to make it.

Corporate bylaws will continue to stiffle the major studios as they seek the magic formula…